Not a firebrand one, that's for sure. He's very cool. Anyway read this on SF, it made me laugh:

Wow MashAllah, This Mufti is pretty sharp looking. The guy has got style, he got the looks, hes rocking a nice shirt with a sweet looking tie. Also the guy seems to be into some serious weightlifting and got what they call "Guns".Hes so different from the regular lot. The Mufti of the new age, the 21st century. Is this only a Maliki thing or what. Or is it that Hanafis , salafis etc make our religion too tight.

Mufti Abu Layth al-Maliki carried out preliminary Arabic and Islamic Studies as a teenager in the UK before going to Damascus, Syria, where he adopted the Maliki madh'hab and studied the essential knowledge of Islam. He went on to memorise the Qur'an along with Tafsir at the Jami`ah Muhammadiyyah Institute in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Mufti Abu Layth returned to Syria to recite the entire Qur'an to Shaykh `Abdu'l-Haadi at-Tabbaa' and gained an ijazah and chain of transmission (isnad) going back to the Messenger of Allah (salla'Llahu `alayhi wa sallam).

After gaining his ijazah, the Mufti completed the Dars-e-Nizami `Alim Course, at the renowned Jami`ah Binnoria in Karachi, Pakistan, where he graduated first class in various Islamic Sciences, from Tafsir, Usul and Comparative Fiqh, to Arabic Literature, Arabic Grammar and `Aqidah. There he gained his isnad in the major books of Hadith.

Mufti Abu Layth then completed the Mufti Course at the same institute where he further specialised in Fiqh, across the various madh'habs, and trained to give Fatwas on Islamic Issues under the supervision of Mufti Abdullah Shoukat (who is a key student of Mufti Taqi Usmani) for Hanafi Fiqh, and Mufti Salim Al-Tunisi for Maliki Fiqh.

Since his return to the UK, he has qualified as a school teacher, and is currently working towards completing his Degree in Psychology. Mufti Abu Layth al-Maliki has a small group of students in Maliki Fiqh who he teaches regularly in Birmingham, and is also engaged in teaching Fiqh and Arabic online.

i don't see what's the issue really, except the fact that he's shaved the sides. still i'm sure there are different opinions regarding what exactly qualifies as a beard. perhaps some might have an issue with wearing a tie.

"There is hadith, which is that practice or that action or teaching of the Messenger (salallahu 'alayhi wasalam) that has been documented. Then there is the sunnah, which is the way which the actual general way or general teaching. Not every sunnah was necessarily documented. And not every hadith was necessarily a sunnah."

[@7:11]

"There is this understanding of sunnah and then there are ahadith as well. Now there is a huge overlap, just to clarify, in fact an absolute overlap between hadith and sunnah. But it is not necessarily confined to each other. There are at times some sunnah which were not documented as hadith and sometimes there are some hadith which have not necessarily been the practice on which the Messenger of Allah (salallahu 'alayhi wasalam) continued to teach."

How does one know a thing is sunnah if it has not been documented?

Could it be the case that he was referring only to the fuqahas definition of sunnah?

"I fear the day, in America as elsewhere, when we will with- draw into our shells and get entangled in the labyrinth of study and research, and our connecting links with the real fountain- head of Islam and with the Islamic centres will be broken where, in spite of all drawbacks, Islam is, still. alive, and the springs of Islamic warmth and eagerness will dry up within us. It will be, then, that the American Islam, European Islam, and the Japanese, Iranian, Indian and Pakistani Islams will emerge, making it impossible to distinguish one from the other. They will be as different from each other as an American is from an Asian, or a Japanese from an Afghan, and Islamic societies will appear whose mental attitudes and natural inclinations and values will be widely apart.

We should take up the challenge and get ready to meet the threat now when the things have not gone far and the Islamic leaders, are, to some extent, active and effective. The wisdom behind the obligatoriness of the Haj Pilgrimage and the congregation of the Muslims, with all their different social. cultural and linguistic characteristics, at a particular place and at a particular time, is that nothing about Faith remained vague or unclear and stock was taken, at the same time, of the Muslims of the world and their Islamic lineaments and local innovations and un-islamic influences they might have accepted owing to the negligence and apathy of the Ulema or as a result of living together, for a considerable length of time, with other peoples and communities could be ascertained and plans evolved for their eradication. As Shah Waliullah has admirably put it, "Had the Haj not been there, the Islamic faith and the Muslims of the East and the West would have been the victims of change and alteration, like the other religions, and it would not have been discovered for ages."

So, brothers, beware of the emergence of a local or territorial Islam and the establishment of Islamic societies that are devoid of the spirit of Islam and built upon foundations that are not genuinely Islamic."
​

"I fear the day, in America as elsewhere, when we will with- draw into our shells and get entangled in the labyrinth of study and research, and our connecting links with the real fountain- head of Islam and with the Islamic centres will be broken where, in spite of all drawbacks, Islam is, still. alive, and the springs of Islamic warmth and eagerness will dry up within us. It will be, then, that the American Islam, European Islam, and the Japanese, Iranian, Indian and Pakistani Islams will emerge, making it impossible to distinguish one from the other. They will be as different from each other as an American is from an Asian, or a Japanese from an Afghan, and Islamic societies will appear whose mental attitudes and natural inclinations and values will be widely apart.

We should take up the challenge and get ready to meet the threat now when the things have not gone far and the Islamic leaders, are, to some extent, active and effective. The wisdom behind the obligatoriness of the Haj Pilgrimage and the congregation of the Muslims, with all their different social. cultural and linguistic characteristics, at a particular place and at a particular time, is that nothing about Faith remained vague or unclear and stock was taken, at the same time, of the Muslims of the world and their Islamic lineaments and local innovations and un-islamic influences they might have accepted owing to the negligence and apathy of the Ulema or as a result of living together, for a considerable length of time, with other peoples and communities could be ascertained and plans evolved for their eradication. As Shah Waliullah has admirably put it, "Had the Haj not been there, the Islamic faith and the Muslims of the East and the West would have been the victims of change and alteration, like the other religions, and it would not have been discovered for ages."

So, brothers, beware of the emergence of a local or territorial Islam and the establishment of Islamic societies that are devoid of the spirit of Islam and built upon foundations that are not genuinely Islamic."
​

"There is hadith, which is that practice or that action or teaching of the Messenger (salallahu 'alayhi wasalam) that has been documented. Then there is the sunnah, which is the way which the actual general way or general teaching. Not every sunnah was necessarily documented. And not every hadith was necessarily a sunnah."

[@7:11]

"There is this understanding of sunnah and then there are ahadith as well. Now there is a huge overlap, just to clarify, in fact an absolute overlap between hadith and sunnah. But it is not necessarily confined to each other. There are at times some sunnah which were not documented as hadith and sometimes there are some hadith which have not necessarily been the practice on which the Messenger of Allah (salallahu 'alayhi wasalam) continued to teach."

How does one know a thing is sunnah if it has not been documented?

Could it be the case that he was referring only to the fuqahas definition of sunnah?

Click to expand...

Something could be an established practice so widespread that it must have been approved by the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Such things need not be transmitted by chains of narrators.

The Malikis in particular use these types of considerations as the basis for treating Ijma Ahl al-Madina as a Hujjah, although there is a great deal of disagreement about what exactly is meant by it. The truth is that other Imams have not totally disregarded the practice of Ahl al-Madinah either. Ibn Taymiyyah has written quite strongly in favor of its importance.

Anyhow, I'm not particularly big on his style, and I don't consider his form of beard permissible, but I don't think that merits calling him names or disparaging him.

I heard from my teacher that in Pakistan becoming a Mufti takes only 3 months. All you need to do is a take a 3 month longe ifta course after you have graduated from the final dawrah at any prominent madrassah. Which ist still quite an achievement. But becoming a Mufti at the age of 25 ( in some cases) is not exactly convincing.